The present invention relates to a method and tool for the restoration of crashed computer operating systems. The method and tool of the present invention can be used in computer operation systems of different languages, and can be operated under the DOS environment to restore a crashed system to its original state as prior to the crash.
The so-call xe2x80x9coperation systemxe2x80x9d is a system software for controlling the hardware and software resources of computer. The function of an operation system is to manipulate and harmonize of the hardware and software of the computer. In other words, a computer functions only when an operation system is executed. Examples of the operation system include the underlying DOS (Disk Operation System) and the Microsoft Windows both are mainstreams of the current personal computer systems. When the operation system crashes, it will no longer work for the user. Therefore, one of the main functions of the present invention is to provide a method for solving the problem of a crashed Windows system.
Under the conventional computers"" operation environment, the crashed operation system could not to full restored to its original state as before the crash. Under the Windows system, as an example, after a crash the user may run the Setup/Install function in the Microsoft Wizardxe2x80x9d software, reply and answers rightly to the hints and questions it provides, only then could a new operation system be reinstalled successfully. But this is not the same system as before the crash. The installation process depends on the user who knows about computer to a certain extent. It is not an easy way. Furthermore, the installation takes a long time, for example, about 20 minutes for Windows 95; and more than one hour for Windows 98. More to the point, the system is not restored specially to the previous state as before the crash.
After a Windows system crashes, only the basic DOS system remains for use. But the DOS system does not support the long file name; hence, the long file names created under Windows cannot be handled or restored under DOS. It is also another problem that under the Chinese or other language versions of the Windows operation system, the file names or directories using the non-English language cannot be restored under the pure English DOS system. To solve this problem, the conventional method is to obtain a short or long file name just under that specific language operation system. This often involves tedious and costly work.
A primary objective of the present inventions to provide an easy and fast method for restoring an extended operation system containing long file names under basic DOS environment, rather than requiring a long time setup and reinstallation.
According to the present invention, a matching table for short file names to long file names is established for the whole files (containing directory names) on a disk. Then the long file names can be retrieved from short file names in accordance with the matching table so as to solve the problem of the DOS that does not support long file names.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a tool in the DOS environment for restoring a computer operation system that contains long file names.
According to the present invention, a restoration tool is to provide a recording media for the computer, such as an optic disk or a magnetic disk, for storing matching tables of short to long file names established before the operation system crashes, and the machine code instructions (driver program) for the computer to execute a restoration. Therefore, after a Windows system crashes, the user can restore the Windows under the DOS system. Even the long file names under different operation systems can be recognized and retrieved correctly. In addition, since the restoration is working under a basic DOS system, it is fast and requires only 20 minutes.
The matching table for short to long file names is established under Unicode which is compatible with different operation systems of different language.
The objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a detailed description provided below, with reference to the accompanying drawings.